The appeal arose out of an incident last year when Lindis deliberately walked on the land at Fylingdales with the clear intention of breaching the byelaws so that the issue could be brought to court and the validity of the byelaws challenged.

 

She was on the base for about 3 and half hours, all the time observed by the Ministry of Defence Police Agency.  The MDPA would not arrest her under the byelaws or indeed enter into any discussion about the byelaws.  There are byelaw notices in place round the perimeter of the base which say 'MOD LAND - KEEP OUT - BYELAWS IN FORCE'.

 

Eventually Lindis easily lifted a byelaws notice out of the ground and quietly walked away with it.  She was eventually arrested and charged with 'criminal damage'.  The whole incident had turned into a farce.

 

Christopher Attwooll (Recorder) and two Magistrates sitting at York Crown Court dismissed the appeal on the grounds that although the alleged damage was not proved, the 'usefulness and purpose' of the sign was temporarily rendered useless.

 

The court had heard evidence from PC Wyatt and PC Farrell that they had been instructed for some time not to arrest under the byelaws as there were 'anomolies' with this particular law.  Both officers but particularly PC Wyatt gave different accounts from the evidence they gave in Scarborough Magistrates' Court when Lindis was convicted.

 

We argued that there was no damage (Lindis gave evidence that there was a suspicion that the sign had been tampered with as it had been radically changed and was not in the same condition that it was during her interview while in detention). 

 

In their ruling the court refused to make any comment concerning the history of invalid military land byelaws.

 

Lindis was ordered to pay £305 costs.

 

Lindis has just heard that the application for legal aid to make an application for leave for a Judicial Review on the decision of the CPS to discontinue two charges under the byelaws, has been refused.  However, underterred, Lindis is determined to bring this issue to court.

 

We argue that military land byelaws at USAF Lakenheath, USAF Mildenhall, NSA Menwith Hill, RAF Fylingdales, JAC Molesworth for example are all invalid and yet the MDPA have arrested, de-arrested, reported with a view to prosecution, detained people over the years with the full knowledge that this law is unsafe.

 

The UK government have given permission for RAF Fylingdales and NSA Menwith Hill to be used by the US government for the American Missile Defense System.